Posts Tagged ‘Ottawa’

Often I write these year-in-review posts and go month by month through the ups and downs of my year. This time around, I look at it in three distinct segments. Let me tell you some stories.

1. A foray into politics

I started the year with two new jobs in a new field. I reluctantly left broadcasting behind to try my luck at communications. One job was with a private public relations firm and the other a political party preparing for an election. Very quickly all things political ramped up and I was swept into the tide of a campaign. Two jobs became one and that one became my life.

I was happy to put everything I had into the campaign. At one point, I spent 50+ days at work in a row. We were putting in 12+ hour days and my boss, even more. Almost everyone I worked with had been campaign staff before. I was the new kid, so I took orders and completed tasks as best I could. I rewrote text over and over – the words lost all meaning and the meanings were diluted. The edits would circle back around to where they had started. A phrase that worked once would be discarded the next time.

But I did my job and didn’t say much about how I thought we could do better. There was a plan made by greater political minds than I. And there was a leader who decided how that plan would (or would not) be implemented.

That plan failed. We lost. It was devastating. I just felt empty. And I was out of a job.

2. Getting personal

Last year, the engagements started to roll in. This year, that trend continued. It even included me.

I had the pleasure of watching two of my oldest friends get married this year. One was streamed over the internet after a quick engagement and the other I travelled across the country to attend. We also had the pleasure of watching two Vancouver friends get married. Interestingly enough, they were with Orgle and I on our first date at a Whitecaps game.

I’m not a particularly sentimental person, but it is nice to see my friends so happy.

I am part of the 2014 Marriage Class. Our engagement a product of a romantic Quebec City hotel, some “California Love” and a nice bubble bath. The wedding is a small affair planned for May. In fact, we’ve cut so many traditions, it will seem more like a barbecue than what the wedding industry is trying to make me plan.

Maybe more exciting than my own engagement is the addition to my family. My brother and his wife had their first child. My nephew is the cutest thing ever and not just because I’m related to him.

So that’s the middle third of my year. Watching friends marry, visiting with my nephew, getting engaged and as summer wound down, welcoming Orgle’s mom to Canada for the first time.

3. Our Nation’s Capital

Following the election loss, I really didn’t know what to do next. My foray into politics had left me feeling empty and I wasn’t sure I could go through that again. So as other members of the campaign team returned to the fold, I looked elsewhere. And I found a job in Ottawa. Go figure, I flee from politics to the nation’s capital.

I now work in international public diplomacy. It’s communications, but also research and event planning – two things I’m really excited to do more of.

I don’t work for the Canadian government, but I’m sure if you really want to figure out what I do, you will.

Orgle started over when he moved to Canada. Now, as a pair, we are starting over in Ottawa. The move was stressful and there are lonely times, but I know it was the right decision. Orgle is loving the real winter weather and I am happy to have a whole new set of restaurants and shops to explore.

We’re a month and a half into our Ottawa adventure. So far, so good. I miss my friends back home, but I’m so glad to have my Orgle here. Dude is so excited for winter. It’s fun just to watch him waiting for snow.

Today was my 32nd birthday. It’s also my last day in Vancouver as I pursue a new career path in Ottawa next week.

While this blog is a record (and a broken record at that) of all the things wrong with Vancouver, it did become home. Edmonton is my hometown; Vancouver was my home. Truth is, I’m sad to be leaving. But I won’t miss the entitled masses and the superiority complex driven by some studies saying this is the best place in the world to live.

A friend put it more eloquently than I can:

“Vancouver is a city, a very nice one at that. But it is a lot harder to leave the people you love (or like, choose whichever word you prefer) than it is a city. There are lots of cities in the world, and they will always be there when you are. Not so much the people.”

He is struggling with the fact that during an extended travel, many of his friends will have left this city. Opportunities, adventures and love take us elsewhere. I tell friends, this is a permanent move, but it is not forever.

I have few close friends from Edmonton these days. Moving here gave me a good idea of who would make the effort and who would fail. It’s not a judgement of character. You can only have so many friends (or at least that’s the case for me) and inevitably, some don’t last.

So it will be a chance to see who sticks and who doesn’t. In my 8+ years on the West Coast, I’ve made some great friends – the kind you hope will last forever. We’ll see.

We will be back. Hell, we’re now about 8 months from our wedding – to be planned from across the country. If I was blogging regularly, all I’d do is complain about that process and the expectations driven by the wedding industry. But I digress..

My birthday was a familiar day in British Columbia. Grey, rain, a lengthy wait for a ferry, infuriating traffic, and take-out sushi. While a move 4,700km is not going to clear up all those issues, it is going to give Orgle and I our own little adventure.